Post Your Wins

[disneysteve]

We got new health insurance that became effective on 3/1, but I didn't find that out until around 3/15.

My daughter had an appointment on 3/6 for which we paid out of pocket $185 since it wasn't covered by our previous plan and I didn't yet know about the new plan.

The other day, we got a check in the mail for $109 which is the amount the new plan covers for that doctor. We had no idea we would get reimbursed for that visit so it was a nice little surprise.

[rennigade]

3 months ago purchased 4 coats from sears...they were sorta like carhartt work coats. Was billed for all 4...only ever received 2 coats. Sears was also nice enough to send me some carpet spot cleaner contraption even though I never ordered it (screw up on their end.)

After multiple online chats had to file a dispute against sears through my credit card. Even that got screwed up in my favor. Only ended up paying around $30 for 2 coats...should have been $60 total...plus I returned the carpet cleaner thing to a retail store and got a $90 gift card.

Thank you sears. You gave me 2 free coats + $60 in credit to another store. That was nice of you. Glad you're going under.

[disneysteve]

Cleaned off my computer desk last Sunday. Found a collectible pin that I thought might be worth selling. Looked it up on ebay, listed it, and it sold today for $7.99.

[james.hendrickson]

My girlfriend when to Fred Meyer (a local Kroger brand grocery and department store), she got 20% off a $100 bill using a coupon.

[disneysteve]

she got 20% off a $100 bill.

How? Did she have a coupon or what?

[james.hendrickson]

Steve - thanks. I misspoke there...yes we had a coupon.

[disneysteve]

We drove up to visit our daughter at school last weekend. We took her out to lunch at Red Robin. She belongs to their reward club. The deal with that is that for every 9 menu items you buy, your 10th is free. On our last visit, she got her 9th item (it's just 3 visits when we all go together) so this visit she had her free item waiting on her account.

In addition to that, since I knew we were going, I bought a discounted e-gift card from Giftcardgranny.com the day before for 16.1% off.

So we saved $10 with her free item reward credit and then saved 16.1% on the remaining bill. Plus, she earned 2 items toward her next reward. It all made for a very reasonably priced lunch.

[disneysteve]

This was a win for my daughter, but I helped.

She was buying a plane ticket for a trip this summer. She's never done that on her own before and she's away at school, so we were Facetiming so I could help her.

As a student, she's eligible to use a company called Student Universe to book travel at discounted rates. Sure enough, the rate they were offering was the best available. While she was filling in the info on her end, I did a quick search and found a coupon code for Student Universe to save $20 off your first purchase. So not only did she save money by booking through them, I was able to save her another $20 on her fare which she thought was great.

I also taught her some general rules about airfare including the fact that Mondays and Fridays are the most expensive days to fly and that ticket prices are typically lower when you buy on Tuesdays (hence the reason we were doing it today). The same flight going Monday to Saturday and buying the ticket on Saturday would have ended up being over $400 more than shifting the trip to Tuesday to Sunday and buying on Tuesday. It's insane but true.

[msomnipotent]

I posted before about the loss I incurred because there was too much salt in the canned tomato sauce. I was told I would only get reimbursed for the 3 cans that I had UPC codes for, which would have been about $10, but they sent me a check for $20. It is a cash check and not coupons to purchase more of their product, so I'm happy.

[disneysteve]

This is more of a parenting win but my daughter texted me today to say that her student loan that started at $7,500 in August is now down to $3,881. So after her June payment, she will have repaid more than half of it in under a year.

She will be borrowing another $7,500 for senior year but will continue to pay $400 on the first loan until it's gone and then start repaying the 2nd loan. She should be student loan debt-free by about a year after graduation, sooner depending on her work status after school.

[rennigade]

Picked up a bunch of free equipment I saw on craigslist. Saw the listing 7 minutes after it posted...I was lucky enough to be the first to respond. Sold some of the dumbbells for $140 last night...still have 2 pair to sell. Kept the 2 olympic bars that were also free (value of $100 each.) Certainly worth the 1.5 hour round trip drive.

[disneysteve]

Picked up a bunch of free equipment I saw on craigslist. Saw the listing 7 minutes after it posted...I was lucky enough to be the first to respond. Sold some of the dumbbells for $140 last night...still have 2 pair to sell. Kept the 2 olympic bars that were also free (value of $100 each.) Certainly worth the 1.5 hour round trip drive.

This is a great money-making tip. You should add that to the "What do you do to earn extra money?" thread:

http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/general-discussion/85655-what-do-you-do-earn-extra-money.html

Picking up free stuff on craigslist and then selling it is risk-free. If it sells, you make money. If it doesn't sell, it didn't cost you anything and you can either relist it for free, donate it, or trash it.

[alexander grey]

I put stuff on sale on eBay every month, only this week I made $120.

[QuarterMillionMan]

At Fremont Las Vegas, Ka-Pow!

[james.hendrickson]

Okay here is one.

The valve on my gas range burned out. I was able to diagnose the problem and fix it myself instead of calling a handyman. The part cost $90. That is pretty expensive, but it would have cost me $150 to pay a handyman to do the work, so big DIY win.